ISDS Case Map
Colombia
Canada has agreed to resume stalled free trade negotiations with Singapore, and exploring the possibility of establishing free trade pacts with Peru, Colombia and Ecuador, Canadian Trade Minister David Emerson said.
President Alvaro Uribe of Colombia, on a visit hastily arranged after Democrats took control of the US Congress, failed to secure promises from American lawmakers that they would back passage of a much-scrutinized trade deal.
A free trade agreement between the United States and Colombia will be signed on Nov. 22, White House spokesman Tony Snow said Friday.
The victory of US Democrats in Tuesday's mid-term elections will make more difficult the approval of a free trade agreement between Colombia and the US, the Andean country's Commerce and Industry minister said.
Colombia and Chile on Friday completed the second round of their free trade talks, resulting in a deal to be signed by Colombian President Alvaro Uribe on Nov. 27 during a visit to Santiago.
In many ways, the flower industry in Ecuador put this small town on the map. Now, just as quickly, it may be erasing it.
Chile and Colombia on Tuesday began a series of free trade talks which they aimed to complete within two months, Carlos Furche, who heads Chile's negotiating team, said. "The bilateral free trade agreement with Colombia will be the broadest and deepest in the region," he noted.
Colombia and Chile will sign a free-trade agreement on Nov. 27 instead of in January as originally announced because negotiations are going faster than expected, President Alvaro Uribe said in New York on Thursday.
At issue are commodities as varied as rice, apparel and automobiles, as well as lucrative new markets in banking and other financial services, with potentially billions of dollars in commerce at stake. But for several countries negotiating trade pacts with the US, the outcome may have less to do with economics than with American election-year politics.
Ratification of the US-Colombia FTA has been held up by the White House's refusal to notify the US Congress, perhaps fearing that another highly politicized trade deal could hurt the re-election chances of Republican incumbents.
